VIII 



DOVES AND PIGEONS 



"Who could tell 



The freshness of the space of heaven above, 

 Edged round with dark tree-tops, through which a dove 

 Would often beat its wings." KEATS. 



" The palace that to Heaven his pillars threw, 

 And kings the forehead on his threshold drew 

 1 saw the solitary ring-dove there, 

 And 'Coo, coo, coo/ she cried, and 'Coo, coo, coo.'" 



Persian quatrain at Persepolis. 

 Quoted by ED. FITZGERALD from BINNING. 



SEVERAL kinds of doves and pigeons haunt the 

 gardens in and around Calcutta. Even in the 

 smallest garden-closes in the very centre of the 

 town, so long as they afford a little grass and 

 a few trees and shrubs, common spotted doves, 

 Turtur suratensis, are always to be met with, 

 calling, quarrelling, and building all through the 

 course of the year. In the well-wooded enclosures 

 of the outskirts and suburbs they are accompanied by 

 two species of green pigeons, the hariydl, Crocopus 

 ph&nicopterus, and the chhota hariydl, Osmotreron 



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